Men’s semis, Wimbledon

1) Raonic defeats Federer.  This was a fabulous match!  Federer started a bit slowly but played great tennis after the first set.  Raonic got many free points from his serve as expected, but unexpectedly, showed many newly developed skills that got him through.  Since his loss to Federer in 2014 at Wimbledon, Raonic has dramatically improved in the following areas:

A) Return of serve.  Milos blistered several returns for free points, and consistently got the ball in play.

B) Net play.  Raonic used his reach and great hands to play many terrific volleys.

C) Court coverage.  It was hard to believe that I was watching Milos Raonic, a man who lumbered around the court two years ago.  In this match Raonic kept many points alive when pressed into difficult positions.

D) Topspin backhand.  In the past Raonic almost always sliced his backhand, but in this match he hit some intimidating backhand drives and looked completely comfortable playing the topspin backhand.

E) Inside-in forehand.  Raonic used to hit his forehand inside out almost every time, but in this match he hit several inside in cannon shots, even from difficult positions on the court.

Overall, a truly great performance from Milos.  If he keeps playing this way he will barge his way into the top 4.  There’s also a lesson from his performance for the very talented Nick Kyrgios, and here it is:

Great tennis that thrills the fans does not come from hitting fancy tweeners , making difficult but ill-timed drop shots, or engaging in emotional pyrotechnics.  Rather, it comes from playing great tennis at critical moments in matches, which Raonic did today.  Nick should try focusing his prodigious talents in a similar way, so he and Milos can meet in future slam finals.

2) Murray defeats Berdych in straight sets.  Thomas Berdych is a one-trick pony, with the trick being power hitting.  It’s a pretty darn good trick, as it allows Berdych to ride roughshod over almost every pro in the game.  It’s not enough to overcome the more complete play of the top 4, however, and Murray reminded him of that today.  This match was not really surprising or eventful.

In the final, expect Murray to prevail.  Although Raonic is a very cerebral player, he has no prior experience in slam finals, and there won’t be more than a few people in the stadium pulling for him.  Let’s hope he plays the way he did today, because he could make it interesting.  Because Milos got so close to beating Murray on grass at the Aegon championships just a few weeks ago, this is almost a pick-em match, but I give Murray the edge.

Women’s semis, Wimbledon

No surprises here.

1) Serena Williams totally dominated Elena Vesnina, who in the last year has gone from a doubles specialist to one of the top singles players on the tour.  This sudden success in singles after several years of middling play is a developing pattern on the women’s tour.  Kerber, Konta, and Halep are others who have unexpectedly improved dramatically in singles.  The explanation for this phenomenon escapes me.

Vesnina should be delighted to have reached the semis here, and not ashamed to have lost to Serena, who played her best match of the tournament.  Serena did everything well, and kept her focus.  No chance for Vesnina, who was powered off the court.

2) Kerber beats Venus Williams.  Like Vesnina, Venus Williams should be proud of her performance here.  By the time she reached the semis today, though, Williams had had more than enough tennis for a 36–year-old.  When you’re a bit weary, it’s no fun playing Kerber, one of the four best defenders in the women’s game (Wozniaki, Halep and Aggie Radwanska are the other three).  Venus’ tired legs made her unable to set up properly for her shots, and that led to unforced errors.  As usual, Angie retrieved everything and extended rallies to the point of exhaustion.  Kerber won in straights, and she will now be in her second slam final of 2016.

Kerber beat Serena in the final of the Aussie Open, but on grass she will have a much tougher time.  Look for Serena to win slam No. 22, which will force the press to look for something else to talk about. 

Men’s quarters, Wimbledon

Highlights of the men’s quarterfinals include.

1) Federer comes back from two sets down to beat Marin Cilic.  Roger saved three match points on the way.  Cilic played absolutely great tennis, which makes one wonder why he doesn’t win more matches.  Once Federer got a foothold in this match by winning the third set, he started to put on a display of all court tennis that was just mind boggling.  It’s hard to imagine how someone his age with so little match play this year could produce dazzling tennis like that.  But Federer is, well, Federer.  This match showed why I hold the view that Roger has the very best one handed backhand in the game.  More on that in an upcoming post.

2) Raonic wins impressively.  Milos Raonic took out Sam Querrey in 4 sets.  Although he lost the third set, Milos looked in control the whole way.  His net play was outstanding.  Raonic is not quick, but he is very agile for his size and has great hands.  He should pose a serious threat to Federer in the next round.

3) Lucas Pouille’s run ends.  Pouille lost easily to Thomas Berdych, but what a great tournament he had!  Another dangerous Frenchman on the rise. 

4) Tsonga takes Murray to 5 sets.  A long tiebreaker in the first, and a five setter for Murray.  He won the last set easily, though, and he’s in fabulous physical shape.  He should be fresh enough to handle Berdych in the semis.

Notable events, Wimbledon

So here we are after the July 4 weekend, and here are the notable Wimbledon events.

The biggest event, of course, was Sam Querrey’s win over Novak Djokovic in 4 sets.  It’s so difficult to be fully alert and engaged for every match over the course of a long year, and when you’re number one in the world, your opponent is always up for the match.  These factors may explain Novak’s loss here, and they also show why Roger Federer’s 36 consecutive slam quarterfinals, 23 consecutive semifinals, and 10 consecutive finals appearances are so amazing.  However, perhaps the most notable feature of this match relates to a post made on this blog on 6/10/16.  That post gave advice to players on how not to misuse the Hawk Eye challenge system, and how that system might be improved. 

            After losing the first 2 sets, winning the third and going up a break in the 4th set, Djokovic had some real hope of turning this match around and winning.  However, by the time the sixth game of the fourth set was over, Novak had used up all of his 3 challenges.  I had pointed out in the earlier post how important it is to make sure you have challenges available for the ends of sets, when more big points are played. 

When serving for the fourth set at 5-4, Djokovic hit a serve on the first point that could not be returned.  The serve was called out and the umpire correctly did not overrule the close call.  Hawk Eye showed, however, that the serve was actually in.  Djokovic could not challenge the out call, and he lost the point to go down 0-15.  On the second point Novak hit a cross court backhand that Querrey could barely touch with his racquet.  The ball was called out, the call was not overruled, and Djokovic could not challenge.  The TV Hawk Eye again showed that the ball was in, but Djokovic lost the point again.  He thus fell behind 0-30.  Querrey eventually broke serve in that game, got the set to a tiebreaker, and prevailed in the tiebreaker to win the match.  Had Djokovic managed his challenges better, he might be playing tomorrow.

In my 6/10 post on challenges, I proposed that the system be changed to allow challenges by the umpire on close calls that would not result in a replay of the point if the challenge led to the call being overturned.  For example, the umpire should have the option to view a close service ace without either player being charged for a challenge.  Had this system been in place for this match, the umpire might well have been able to take a look at both of those first two calls in the 10^th game of the fourth set.  Had that happened, Djokovic would have won both points instead of losing them, and the match could well have turned out differently. 

Don’t take anything away from Sam Querrey, though.  After all, he might have won anyway, and he did a lot things in this match that one MUST do to beat Novak.  Most importantly, he got free points on his serve, with 31 aces, and many of these came on big points.  You cannot beat Djokovic without getting many free or very easy points off your own serve.   Querrey also maintained his concentration and composure throughout.  Querrey has a history of having his focus wax and wane during matches, but he did not have that problem in this one.  Kudos to him. 

Other notable events on the men’s side include:

1) The play of Lucas Pouille from France, who has made the quarters.

2) The steely resolve of Milos Raonic, who won his 4^th round match over David Goffin after getting down two sets.

3) The dominating play of Andy Murray, who easily handled the dangerous Nick Kyrgios in straight sets. 

On the women’s side, the following are worth some attention:

1) The play of Venus Williams, who has now reached the semis!  She’s had a fairly friendly draw, but that’s still quite an achievement for someone her age.

2) The return to full form of Dominika Cibulkova. She took out Bouchard, who was playing very well, and then Aggie Radwanska, who is always tough to beat. 

3) On the disappointing side, the loss by Coco Vandeweghe to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.  Pavlyuchenkova is a great ball striker but she’s not very fast, and Coco had been playing quite well in tournaments leading up to Wimbledon.  Mary Joe Fernandez, a TV commentator for this match, hit the nail right on the head when she noted that Vandeweghe has difficulty figuring out how to win when not serving well.  Vandeweghe should study films of this match and try to improve by analyzing the mistakes she made here.

4) Also a bit disappointing was the Sloane Stephens’ loss to Kuznetsova in the third round.  Kuznetsova is a top flight player, but this is the kind of match that Stephens must figure out how to win if she is going to get to the top of the game, where, in my opinion, she belongs.

5) Angie Kerber is threatening to win this tournament, which would be quite an achievement after winning the Australian Open earlier.  She most likely will have to beat both Williams sisters to do it, however.

Wimbledon Notable Events

The weather has cleared and a full schedule has resumed.

Big upset.

            Garbine Mugurza went down to Jana Cepelova in the second round in straight sets.  This is undoubtedly a disappointment for Muguruza, who made the final last year, and for fans hoping to see a finals rematch between her and Serena Williams.  It will be interesting to see how Muguruza responds to this setback.  She needs to remember that in professional sports, the operative question is not “What have you done for me lately?” but rather is, “What are you doing right now?”.  This tournament is over for her, so she needs to just move on.

            Another surprising upset involved the loss by Kristina Mladenovic to Aliaksandra Sasnovich, who is ranked in the 90’s.  Mladenovic looked decidedly uncomfortable on the grass.  I still like her future prospects, though.

Best match.

            The best match I’ve seen on the women’s side thus far was between Eugenie Bouchard and Johanna Konta.  Bouchard was playing shortly after winning her first round match, and was on center court against a Brit with a lot of fan support.  Konta has had a spectacular rise in the rankings over the last year and plays within her abilities very well.

            Konta played wonderful tennis in this match, particularly in the second set, where her serve and forehand were huge and her shot placement was impeccable.  Her play was not enough, though, to beat Bouchard, who played tremendous defense and used that defense to extend rallies and wait for opportunities to open points up.  Bouchard’s pattern in the past has been to simply try to win rallies immediately.  Bouchard and countryman Raonic never seem to use the drop shot, which would help them both in situations where they draw a weak serve return and find themselves close to the net with the opponent on his/her heels.  Nonetheless, Bouchard’s versatility, patience and steely nerves were amazing in this dramatic, hard fought, extremely well played match.  Eugenie won’t have long to relax and enjoy this very important success, as her next opponent is Cibulkova, who is back at full health and is coming off a grass court warm up tournament win.

Lots of Americans win.

            On the women’s side, Serena and Venus Williams, McHale, Sloane Stephens, Madison Keys, Coco Vandeweghe all won.   On the men’s side, Querrey, Jack Sock, Stevie Johnson, Donald Young and John Isner all are still in it.  Soon these Americans will be playing other Americans – the burden of riches.  Serena Williams plays McHale next, for example.

Men’s surprises

            Dominic Thiem went down to Jiri Vesely in three tiebreakers.  That can happen on grass with a big serving opponent.  Grigor Dimitrov hasn’t lost yet – something of a surprise these days.  He plays Steve Johnson next.  Watch Alaxander Zverev out of the corner of your eye.  Bernie Tomic also is still playing.  If Tomic really expects to be a top 10 player he must win more of these early round matches.  So far, so good for him.   Juan Martin del Potro (so good to see him playing!) has Stan Wawrinka next.  This match could be interesting. 

This blogger is away for July 4 weekend.  See you all on the 5^th, when we should have caught up on all delayed early round matches and be poised for some dramatic encounters!